Ruth Behar: Hi, my name is Ruth Behar. Let me tell you a little bit about my name. Well, Ruth is easy enough. One of these classic Biblical names. Maybe a kind of old fashioned name.

My last name, Behar, that is my father's name. I never changed my name after I married, and Behar is a very interesting name that is common among people of Spanish-Jewish ancestry, more Sephardic. And there is a town in Spain called Bejar, spelled with a J rather than an H, and an accent on the E. And a lot of people who share the name think that our name might be the name of that town, Bejar, but we don't pronounce it that way in English. We just say [Bey-HAR 00:00:45] , most of us, some people say [BEY-har 00:00:47] and some people say [BEE-har 00:00:49] , but I like Behar. It's very easy to spell, just write bear, like Grizzly Bear, B-E-A-R, and then put an H between the E and the A, and you've got my name. Behar.